TALKIN BOXIN
July 6, 2003
by Howie Reed

Yea, Yea I know I said no column this week but I told
a porky. Lighten up. When I was but a wee lad,  Mom
use to say to us, "Money is the root of all evil".
"Us" at that point consisted of me and "Jeeper"  the
Siamese cat. The cat would sit and listen. Then give
Mom the "look" that said, "Yea right where’s my
milk?" I gave the same look and got my butt paddled.
This was a good early lesson. Cat’s can get away with
pretty much anything they want. Back to this money and evil thing. Later in life I was told, may have been
cramming for a mid term, that "The pursuit of money
is the root of all evil." No where is that more
apparent than in the sport of boxing as exhibited by
"some" promoters. Lawyers do the same thing but hide
behind "helping people". Which of course is "Bushwa."

If whinny fighters that can’t or won’t fight don’t
turn you off from the fight game then most promoters
should. A couple of years ago,  I attended the WBC
convention in Pattaya Beach, Thailand. Of course,  I went for the valuable information I could obtain from the
various speakers and seminars. Especially when I
discovered that I could put on head phones and hear
them speak in Japanese or Russian.  Probably could
have learned more if I could understand either
language. A friend of mine from Australia was trying
to assist a lady world champion with getting fights in
the USA. He approached an American based promoter to inquire if the promoter might have some suggestions.  "What the F*** are you bothering me for. How the F*** do you expect me to make any f***ing money off of some F***ing Aussie F***ing women fighter." This was delivered at the top of his voice in a front of a full hotel lobby. Here’s a guy whose dress actually mirrors his actions. He dresses like a bum and is a bum.  His actions are the rule not the exception.

Wonder why Evander Holyfield isn’t fighting Roy Jones?  Promoter and Roy Jones greed. It’s estimated by someone that the fight would have generated 44
million dollars. Holyfield was offered 8 million. The
other 32 million as to be split by Roy Jones, Don King
and Murad Muhammad. When Evander said, "Why should the promoters make more than I do" he was spot on.  There is talk that at one point King improved his offer to 10 million but to get that, Holyfield had to
forgive 2 million that was still owed him from the
Chris Byrd fight. Evander could figure out that 10
minus 2 is the same as 8 except in Americans public
schools where 10-2 could be anything that made the
dolts gain self-esteem and where Don King is involved.
Hence we have Holyfield and James Toney on October 4.

The Holyfield-Tony fight is being promoted by Dan
Goossen.  "I couldn't care less what Goossen does, but I'm willing to bet the fight doesn’t happen," said
Arum. "Tell Bob to sit back and learn and see how we
make it work.  I'll have a site (he does) and the
economics will work. Bob doesn't even have a fight.
Tell Bob if he's so sure our fight won't happen, I'll
make him a bet because Vegas is a gambling town. If
the bell rings for our fight, then he retires. If he's
so sure he knows what's going on, he doesn't have
anything to worry about. He should put his career on
the line if he's so certain of what he's saying." Way
to go Dan Goossen.

After Arum announced his October 4th event he said,
""I guarantee you that Morales will sell out (the
Staples Center) and we'll get a great response on pay
per view. I don't know about the other fight, and I
don't care. I hope they do well, but that's not my
business. I had this date a long time ago and we're
going ahead with it." This must have been the day
after. Of course Arum cares about someone actually be successful. It makes him look even more one
dimensional as promoter. He thinks he has Oscar and a bunch of Latin fighters. Actually he’s the puppet that
dances on the end of the String dangled by Oscar.

SO much  of covering boxing today is either
courtrooms, loud mouth promoters or fighters with over
value opinions of their own selfs. Funny that they
didn’t take a tip from NASCAR, which is becoming the
biggest sport in America, in talking in complete
sentences, being well groomed and allowing their
action to speak for them. Basketball, baseball and to
some extent pro football are all having problems but
rather then examine themselves they blame "outside
forces". In every case it should be, "We met the
enemy and it was us." The constant legal garbage can
not be positive. The flip side is boxing promoters
like lawyers never listen to themselves talk so
realizing how stupid it all sounds is lost on them.

GROWING up in Oakland one of the names always
associated with boxing was that of Dick Sadler. No one argues that he was one of the very best trainers ever along with Eddie Futch and a couple of others. Sadler recently passed away. To set his name in perspective for you young "whipper snappers" (and please quit snapping them whippers)  he trained Cassias Clay (later Muhammad Ali as if you didn’t know but then "whipping them snappers" will make you go blind so I was told by my Dad who needed glasses.), George Foreman and Joe Frazier who all won Gold Medals for the USA in the Olympics and became heavyweight champions. He also worked the corner for Sonny Liston,  Archie Moore, Charlies Shipes and others.

In the view of some Sadler’s downside was that he is
credited with upbringing Don King into boxing. The story is that Sadler tried of working with white promoters wanted a black promoter to cheat him. Enter stage left Don King. On Friday July 11th at the Centennial Hall in Hayward, California there will be a party remembering Dick Sadler and his life. Tickets
available at the door.

GOT an e-mail from Patrick the Fighting Frog and boxing promoter in Thailand. He was right on with his
Klitschko-Lewis "guess" now he wades in on Lewis-Jones jr. "Hey Howie, That would be great Roy Jones Jr - L. Lewis, if Lewis really want to end his career with
succes pleeeaaase don't fight Flash Jones Jr. He is so
quick that Lewis never gonna have a change to hit him
or hang on, on no occasion or the ropes maybe, it's
gonna be a WWF look a like show. Maybe "The Rock" will join as well? The only heavyweight that can beat Roy Jones Jr. for the moment in my opinion, is David Tua, he still got the heaviest hitting left hook and got
the same height, dangerous. I think Lewis proved
himself well and should better retire in glory, he has
money enough so now he can start playing movie star
like Roy Jones Jr. in The Matrix Reloaded while he
still can talk. Patrick aka The Flying Frog ".

AND FINALLY.  From the Bangkok Post and the typewriter of Mr. B. Trink. "Why is it called Alcoholics
Anonymous when the first thing you do is stand up and
say, ``My name is Bob and I am an alcoholic.''

(Opinions and editorials of HotBoxingNews.com is the opinion of those writers and may not be the opinion of HotBoxingNews.com)

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